Undergraduate Program

The major in linguistics is intended to acquaint the student with
the methods and findings of the scientific study of human language and
its relationships to cognition, society, and history. It serves as a
preparation for graduate training in linguistics or related areas, and
as part of a rigorous general education. Linguistic training is relevant
to work in anthropology, philosophy, psychology, and language and
literature, as well as to careers in such fields as education, computer
science, and law.

The department offers a major, two minors, and an accelerated program (submatriculation) leading to both bachelor's and master's degrees at the end of the fourth year.

Linguistics classes satisfy several general course requirements.
See this table for details.

The Hoenigswald Prize is given
to seniors whose senior thesis is deemed to have made a significant scientific contribution to the field.

The Major in Linguistics

Minimum Requirement 14 course units.

1. All students in the major program are required to take 10 cu's in the
linguistics department. One of these courses must be the Undergraduate
Tutorial (Ling 300), which is taken in the fall semester of senior year. Requirements for the remaining 9 linguistics courses differ based on Class year. See links below for details.

2. The remaining 4 cu's may be satisfied by courses in
linguistics or by related courses in other departments. Related courses
include perspectives on language in social, cultural, historical, or
cognitive context; studies of a specific language or family; or the
formal properties of human and other languages. Up to two language
instruction courses can be counted toward the major, but not if also
used to satisfy the College language requirement.

The Minor in Linguistics

A minor in linguistics requires any six course units offered through
the department, excluding language courses. With approval of the
undergraduate chair, a closely related course from outside the
department may be substituted for one of these six.